CHARTER ARTS THEATRE FEMALE AUDITION MONOLOGUES Audition .

CHARTER ARTS THEATRE – FEMALE AUDITION MONOLOGUESPlease select one of the following monologues to prepare for your audition. All pieces are roughly 1 and½ to 2 minutes in length, so you need not worry about timing them. We’ve offered some uniquecharacters at varying ages, so make sure you choose the character that is most appropriate for your typeand age range. Read the descriptions provide to help you choose, or ask for advice from your teachers,parents or mentors who are familiar with these works. All of these monologues have been pulled frompublished, highly acclaimed works, so you should have no problem finding copies of the plays in localbookstores or in your local or school libraries. Please refer to our audition guidelines for furtherassistance in preparing your piece.1. THE CRUCIBLE, by Arthur MillerThe Crucible is based on the Salem Witch Trials and the hearings that took place to prosecute a greatmany innocent women accused of witchcraft. Set in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 andMay 1693, the town’s inhabitants begin to turn against each other for their own manipulative reasonsand in some cases to save themselves. In this moment, Mary is sharing fictional account of herinteractions with another woman, whom she hopes will be tried for witchcraft as a result of her story.MARY WARREN: I never knew it before. I never knew anything before. When she come into the courtI say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleeps in ditches, and so very old and poor. Butthen- then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin' up my back, and theskin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then(entranced) I hear a voice, a screamin' voice, and it were my voice- and all at once I rememberedeverything she done to me! (Like one awakened to a marvelous secret insight) So many times, Mr.Proctor, she come to this very door, beggin' bread and a cup of cider-and mark this: whenever I turned heraway empty, she mumbled. But what does she mumble? You must remember, Goody Proctor. Lastmonth-a Monday, I think--she walked away, and I thought my guts would burst for two days after. Doyou remember it? And so I told that to Judge Hathorne, and he asks her so. "Sarah Good," says he, "whatcurse do you mumble that this girl must fall sick after turning you away?" And then she replies(mimicking an old crone) "Why, your excellence, no curse at all. I only say my commandments; I hope Imay say my commandments," says she! Then Judge Hathorne say, "Recite for us your commandments!"(Leaning avidly toward them) And of all the ten she could not say a single one. She never knew nocommandments, and they had her in a flat lie!2. THE FIFTH OF JULY, Lanford WilsonKenneth Talley, Jr. is a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran living in his childhood home with his boyfriend,Jed. At the beginning of the play, he is due to return to his former high school to teach English, but hasdecided not to. Visiting Ken and Jed are Ken's sister, June and her daughter, Shirley, as well as theirlongtime friends, John Landis and his wife Gwen. John is visiting to purchase the Talley House for Gwento convert to a recording studio, so that she can have a career as a country singer. Unbeknownst toanyone but June, John and Ken, Shirley is John's daughter, and his visit has as much to do with a desireto gain joint custody of Shirley as it does with the house. In this moment, Shirley expresses her desire tobe someone of great substance and commits whole heartedly to the possibility.

SHIRLEY: “(Quietly determined.) I’m going to be the greatest artist Missouri has ever produced. No –the entire Midwest. There have been very famous people – world famous people – Tennessee Williamsgrew up in Missouri. He grew up not three blocks from where I live now! All his formative years. AndMark Twain. And Dreiser! And Vincent Price and Harry Truman! And Betty Grable! But me! Oh God!Me! Me! Me! Me! I am going to be so great! Unqualified! The greatest single artist the Midwest has everknown! A painter. Or a sculptor. Or a dancer! A writer! A conductor! A composer! An actress! One of thearts! People will die. Certain people will literally have cardiac arrests at the magnitude of myachievements. Doing something astonishing! Just astonishing. I will have you know that I intend to studyfor ten years, and then burst forth on the world. And people will be abashed! Amazed! Astonished! At themagnitude. Oh, God! Look! Is that she? Is that she? Is it? IT IS! IT IS SHE! IT IS SHE!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (She collapses on the floor. Slowly getting to a sitting position;with great dignity) She died of cardiac arrest and astonishment at the magnificence of my achievement inmy chosen field. Only Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Frank Lloyd Wright have raised to myheights before me!”3. TOMORROW’S WISH, by Wade BradfordJuniper is a creative young woman who lives in a small town with her grandmother, sheltered away frommost of the world. In this scene, she is talking to her cousin, Megan, about her first and only kiss. Thisplay is only available on-line at www.wadebradford.com.JUNIPER: I kissed a boy once. At least I tried. I don’t know if it counts if they don’t kiss back. But Itried to kiss a boy and it almost worked. Most of the time Grandma and I don’t get to see folks much, butwe go into town. Sometimes. And Grandma says I just have to be careful to mind my manners, andGrandma says I’m real good at being careful, but sometimes I get so bored in that little town. Only onevideo store. Only two churches. And the park only has two swings and a pool that never gets filled upanymore. But in our little town there is a boy named Samuel. He's a bag-boy at the grocery store. He doesit just right and never squishes the eggs. And he has red hair and green eyes. And (Laughs at thememory.) Freckles all over his face! And Samuel is so nice. So nice to me and Gram. He would alwayssmile and always say “thank you” and “your welcome.” If he says, “Have a nice day,” then you do. That’show good he is at his job. And I always wanted I always wanted to be close to him, or to talk to him,without Gram around. And one day when Grandma had a really bad cold I got to go to the store all bymyself. And I bought some oyster crackers and some medicine. Then I got to watch Samuel all by myself.Watch him do his bag boy job. I just stared and stared, trying to count all of those handsome freckles.Then, he asked if there was anything else I wanted. I just whispered “Yes.” (Pauses, closes eyes inremembrance.) And then I grabbed him by the ears and Mmmmmmm! (Pretends she’s grabbing andkissing him.) That was my first kiss. It was the most romantic moment of my life. Until the managerpulled me off of him.4. THE GLASS MENAGERIE, by Tennessee WilliamsLaura cherishes her glass figurines and does her best to avoid the painful reality of her existence. Hemother, Amanda, is determined to marry her off. She forces Laura to receive a gentleman caller, notrealizing Jim was the boy Laura had a crush on in high school. Laura’s insecurity is revealed as she triesto persuade her mother to leave her be. Unlike the rest of the play, Laura seems to find strength in thismoment to stand up to her mother to stop her from interrupting her speech. But in the end, she still obeysAmanda’s wishes.

LAURA: Mom, I can’t do anything– No, Mom, please! I have to say this. I can’t go outside thesewalls. There’s just too much pain! I can feel everyone staring at me–staring at this. (She points to thebraced leg.) The noise it makes, it’s just so loud! That’s why I dropped out of high school! I felteveryone’s eyes staring at me, heard all the giggles they tried to suppress as I clomped and limped downthe hall. Especially when I would enter the choir room! Jim would never want to be around meagain. Sure, we talked sometimes, but he wouldn’t want to be around me any more than those fewoccasions–not around the limping girl who makes such a racket! Nobody would want to be near me. So Ituned out from the rest of the world before it could cause me any more pain than I have alreadysuffered. And it seems that whatever crippled my leg– (Amanda opens her mouth as if about to interject.)–yes, Mom, you might as well admit that I’m crippled!–has crippled the rest of my being throughouttime. It seems I just got worse and worse at school. And then at business college, in that confined typingroom, that quick clacking of keyboards surrounded me as I stumbled and fat-fingered all the letters. It feltas if the professor was breathing down my neck, silently mocking me as I continued to fail. Until finally,all that pressure poured out of me–and into a toilet. Mom, secluded from the world in this home listeningto phonograph records and dusting my glass collection–this is where I belong! I fail everywhere else inthe outside world. Here, there’s nothing to fail at! I’ll never succeed at finding a husband or a job, so Imight as well give up trying now and just be content in my bubble with at least having no additionalfailure for the rest of my life! I can’t see Jim! (Tears are welling in her eyes.) It would only result in theultimate failure–rejection from the only person I have ever loved! Mom, I can’t! Just have dinnerwithout me. Please, Mom.5. A RAISIN IN THE SUN, by Lorraine HansberryThis play focuses on the Youngers, an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the1950s. When the play begins, the family is about to receive an insurance check for 10,000 from theirdeceased father’s life insurance policy. Each member of the family has an idea as to what this moneyshould be used for. Beneatha tries to convince her brother and mother to use the money for her medicalschool tuition.BENEATHA: When I was small we used to take our sleds out in the wintertime and the only hills wehad were the ice-covered stone steps of some houses down the street. And we used to fill them in withsnow and make them smooth and slide down them all day and it was very dangerous, you know fartoo steep and sure enough one day a kid named Rufus came down too fast and hit the sidewalk and wesaw his face just split open right there in front of us And I remember standing there looking at hisbloody open face thinking that was the end of Rufus. But the ambulance came and they took him to thehospital and they fixed the broken bones and sewed it all up and the next time I saw Rufus he just had alittle line down the middle of his face . I never got over that What one person could do for another,fix him up – sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in theworld. I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world a human beingcould do. Fix up the sick, you know – and make them whole again. This was truly being God It used tobe so important to me. It used to matter. I used to care. Yes – I think [I stopped]. Because it doesn’t seemdeep enough, close enough to what ails mankind! It was a child’s way of seeing things – or an idealist’s.You are still where I left off. You with all of your talk and dreams about Africa! You still think you canpatch up the world. Cure the Great Sore of Colonialism – (loftily, mocking it) with the Penicillin ofIndependence - ! Independence and then what? What about the crooks and thieves and just plain idiots